So you know the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo? The device that wascoming to Telstra in the first half of this year? Well from the messages coming out of Sony Ericsson at the moment, that won’t be the case. The Xperia Neo has been pushed back to a Q3 release due to a production bottleneck caused by the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami that ensued. This is a good move by Sony Ericsson as it allows them to continuing pushing forward their production of the already released Xperia Arc and Xperia Play so they don’t run out of stock. That would also explain why the Xperia Neo was only listed as ‘Coming Soon’ in Telstra’s Android roadmap. Official Sony Ericsson statement after the break.

As Sony Ericsson continues to assess the impact of the situation in Japan on its business, we have communicated to our operator customers and distributors that some volume of Xperia Arc, Xperia PLAY and Xperia Neo phones has been affected. Xperia Neo has already been introduced to the marketplace in limited quantities. However, due to supply chain disruptions resulting from the situation in Japan, we have shifted the timing of Xperia Neo’s broader launch and it is now planned for early Q3.

We will address this topic at the time of our Q1 financial results announcement call that is scheduled for April 19, 2011.

It will hurt, and they’ll probably have to lower the price, but the Neo was not being positioned as the top-spec phone anyway. It’s not being aimed at people who need dual core this and 3D that, so if people like the look of it and they make sure to still have the latest version of Android on it when it relaunches, it could do OK. If they’d had to delay the wider launch of the Arc, that would have killed them, because that will certainly not be sellable as a top-line phone in 6 months. A mid-range phone with… Read more »